News and commentary on the autism epidemic and my beautiful boy who is living with autism.

July 20, 2005

The CDC lets us know that vaccines are still safe

Today the CDC held a press conference to again reiterate that despite parents concerns about mercury in vaccines, that vaccines are safe. They offered no new information, or statement on thimerosal or autism, but they just wante to make sure that we knew that vaccines are good and keep children from getting horrible illnesses .

Here is a list of some of the questions that they didn’t answer. Very reasonable questions that parents have been asking for more than 5 years:

Fouad Yazbak's speech at the "Hear Their Silence Rally" (April 2000)

It is truly an honor for me to be addressing you. I salute every one of you. I also salute all parents and grandparents who were unable to come. You are all true heroes to me.

Supposedly I retired in June of 98. Believe me if I knew then what I know now, I would be still working. It was so much easier before.

I am here today as a grandfather, who happens to be a doctor. The fact that as a grand father my heart is broken, does not mean that as a doctor, my medical judgment is in any way compromised.

I trained as an infectious disease pediatrician. I was taught to fight epidemics, but never did I dream that I would be fighting one of such magnitude. For 40 years, I also practiced general pediatrics. I was a clinician. I listened to moms and I loved kids.

The big shots - if you forgive the pun - sit in their ivory towers. They look down on the rest of us humans. They are convinced that only they know the truth, only they have seen the light.

A dangerous thing happens when people think they know everything. They don't need to look anymore and they don't need to listen either.

Besides, why would they listen to you anyway? You are just mothers. What can you possibly know about autism? How can you even talk about vaccines? What big fancy university did you go to? Did you publish anything in peer reviewed journals? Where are your double blind crossover controlled studies? You are obviously imagining things. You are just grief stricken. It is all in your head.

Thank God my great teachers taught me differently. They told me that the most accurate diagnosis starts with a good history. They told me that I should listen to mothers. They taught me that I had to go into a situation with an open mind. That someone with a different point of view could be right. That it was not a shame to change my mind. That it did not make me smaller but smarter.

So I listened to mothers and I learned and I came to believe. The mother who taught me the most is my own daughter Kathleen. She is here today from London to be with you. She too is fighting your same battle, and because of her, I devote the rest of my life to this cause.

This speech is over, but not the lingering questions. So let me ask:

WHY?

Why do we even have to be here today?

Why did this tragedy have to happen?

Why are 6 children per day, 7 days per week being diagnosed with autism in just one state?

Why will several children around the nation develop autism before this rally ends?

Why, if this epidemic is so widespread, is no one looking at it seriously?

Why does Japan have so little autism now that Higashi schools are exported?

Why do we allow a federal agency to promote and at the same time regulate vaccines? Did we not learn enough from the FAA?

Why does it take less time to approve a vaccine than a shampoo for lice?

Why do 'epidemics' and "outbreaks" occur, and are heavily reported in the press, just before a new vaccine is marketed?

Why are vaccines mandated without proper safety studies?

Why are a few weeks of follow-up considered adequate?

Why do the vaccine manufacturers finance safety studies, when they are the very companies, which profit from sales?

Why do we have to prove a vaccine causes a problem when the manufacturer--with all its might-- has no studies to prove that it does not?

Why do we have to give so many vaccines together when we know that they work better singly?

Why do we rush to give combined live virus vaccines to children in the absence of epidemics?

Why do we give them to such young and vulnerable children in such a short period of time?

Why are we obligated to repeat a triple vaccine at the age of five, when we know that 95% of the recipients are already immune?

Why don't we just get titers?

Why do we have to invent a vaccine for every disease?

Why do we suddenly have so many new immune diseases?

Why are we seeing so many recurrent infections?

Why doesn't anybody listen to parents and just consider the possibility that vaccines may cause autism?

Why are thousands of children with autism less impressive than two hundred with intussusception or 124 with vaccine induced paralytic polio?

Why do we think that Pokimon toys, infected ground beef, and rear gates of minivans deserve our immediate attention when we don't even look at the possibility that vaccines could induce autism? Aren't 54,000 cases of autism enough to merit a comprehensive and independent investigation?

Why don't doctors know more about autism: its diagnosis, and its treatment?

Why does my daughter, who is a headhunter, and not even a medical professional-know more about the subject than most of the medical establishment?

Why do HMOs have to dictate multiple and combined vaccinations? They'll tell you it is because parents may not bring their children back. That is absurd and they know it. Parents are indeed more likely to return for a visit if a shot is needed. They'll tell you it is because they want to spare the children the pain of repeated injections. That is even more absurd. Show me any family of a child with vaccine-induced autism who wouldn't have gladly returned to get one vaccine at a time.

Why do policy groups which formulate vaccine schedules allow their members to sit on drug company boards? Such a conflict of interest would never be allowed in business.

Why do we allow anyone who owns drug company stocks to dictate vaccine policy?

Why do we repeatedly vaccinate women with live-virus vaccines when they fail to develop protective titers, or lose their immunity over and over again?

Why do we allow doctors to vaccinate women during pregnancy when it is totally contra-indicated?

Why haven't we followed up on the 10,000 people who were included in the original rubella vaccine studies?

Why are we giving a triple vaccine at 1 year of age, when just a few years ago the authorities insisted that it should not be given a day before the age of 15 months?

Why don't we tell mothers it is because the vaccine-induced immunity they are now giving their children is not as lasting as that their own mothers gave them following natural infection?

Why aren't people convinced that vaccines are safe?

Why can't families who have doubts, have an option to request mono-valent vaccines?

Why is the triple vaccine mentioned first to prevent the individual diseases of rubella, mumps and measles?

Why do the authorities continue to deny increases in autism, when every school department is going bankrupt trying to educate afflicted children?

Why is it that a lone, retired pediatrician can uncover more suspicious findings of a possible vaccine-autism connection than the vaccine proponents and manufacturers, with all their power and money?

Why did the Vaccine in Pregnancy Registry fail to find a single problem in 19 years? How did they manage to come up with a 0% complication result? Has there ever been any study anywhere with 0% results?

Why did they only look at the Congenital Rubella Syndromes?Why didn't they even ask about developmental problems?Why did eleven mothers, in just four months, report overt problems with their children, some readily visible at birth?

Why did our vaccine officials endorse Dr. Brent Taylor's findings?Why didn't they question his methodology and his results?Why has he refused to show us his data?

Why, with all the fury about a possible vaccine link, was no blood drawn for titers and Myelin Basic Protein Antibodies testing during the investigation of a NJ outbreak?

Why haven't the authorities been listening to our plea to look at autism as another disease to be stamped out?Is it because they are afraid of what they may find?Is it because vaccines represent a $2 billion industry annually?Is it because vaccines are BIG BUSINESS?

Why are moneys from the vaccine compensation programs not being disbursed to the deserving children. What more do you need to prove?

Why are safer vaccination schedules not implemented now that there are no outbreaks?

Why take such risk when there is no real danger?

Why and why and why?

An entire generation of children is being needlessly damaged. Their families will never be the same again. America is staring down the barrel of a multi-billion dollar, decades-long program to help children with autism.

These are terrible and ugly truths.

These are unworthy and despicable truths in a country such as the United States of America.

Within walking distance from here are memorials that pay tribute to victims of horrible and unavoidable wars. Our autism war is totally avoidable.

I came to this country in 1957, with the belief that America is the land of freedom and justice. On the topic of autism, justice has not been served. On the topic of vaccines, neither has freedom.

Let us resolve to continue on our course, and not give up until justice and freedom are served.